AFTER RELAPSE

Recovery from drugs and alcohol is a process. Find a new meaning for life. A purpose.

HERE ARE SOME TIPS

Stay focused on your recovery. Don’t try to concentrate on another major goal while you’re coming back from a relapse. You need time to get yourself together, time to get stronger.

Make sure you recognize your incremental achievements. Reward for achieving a goal of one week of sobriety, or one month without gambling, for example, is a great way of recognizing your achievements and spurring you on to your next goal.

Get support and help often. Keep in close contact with those who are most helpful to you. This may be your family members, close friends or co-workers. It should definitely include your 12 step group sponsor and other group members with whom you share similarities or friendship.

Change your routine. Switch the way you drive to work, the order in which you do your exercises, the variety of cuisines you eat or prepare. This keeps things from getting stale and creates an aura of excitement, of something different, something new each day to look forward to.

Don’t see your relapse as failure. Never give up on your goal of recovery.

Relapse is a brief return to addictive behavior. It doesn’t mean that you’re destined to fail if you’ve had a relapse. You may need to go back into treatment and/or intensive counseling so you can get back on the road to recovery.

Get immediate support. Turn towards a person or group that you trust to get the help you need.

Fight impulses. Make yourself wait at least 2 hours before acting on a craving or urge. This is often long enough for the urge/craving to dissipate.

Develop coping strategies. When you identify or find behaviors that are helpful in curing cravings/urges, modify these to incorporate into new behaviors that can help in other stressful situations. Nothing succeeds like success. If it worked before, make use of it again — and then some.

Focus on the future. Always have new goals to strive for. Look toward the future, the way you want your life to be a year, five years, even 10 years down the road. Make plans that you can put into motion to achieve those goals. Remember, the rest of your life begins with the steps you take today. Your recovery begins now.